DPS begins

Justas Bendaravicius
Information and Interface design


Technology had swiftly changed the way we work and design. Pen and paper are usually left only for brainstorming and initial sketches. As a student of a course which prides itself in technology-driven design, I have always been one of those design students that enjoy working with a screen. I am studying Information and Interface design, aka User experience design at the London College of Communication. I’m just starting my DPS journey so I’m just trying to begin to grasp how life is going to look after university years.

The course that I am studying incorporates lots of different design fields. From Graphic, interface, motion to interaction design. Thus, I was able to dip my hands in some different design fields. The most interesting for me is the User experience design and user research. These fields are rooted in human behavior and are quite new to the design industry. Not that long ago designing new products was all about the inner workings of the mechanisms and the atheistic appeal. If the product or service would fulfill the end goal then it would be considered as a success. These products would usually neglect the user and his experiences using it. User experience is about what happens when the user comes into contact with the product. Having a button click when you push it down could not seem like a significant thing, but once it comes between having your morning tea or not, it matters. Nowadays, user experience is becoming an important part of many industry fields and companies are trying to understand their users more than ever before. I think it is really important to solve issues in a user-centered way.

DPS year has just started and already presented itself with its own challenges. Time is flying fast and it becomes hard to keep up with everything when nobody is structuring your weeks. No classes, no one giving you an outline of what you are going do this year and most importantly no sometimes so needed routine. When last school year was approaching the end I tried to plan as much as possible for the upcoming year. But as more often than not, not all the plans work out. So far, the biggest disappointment was the cancelation of summer school that I was very excited to be a part of. At the moment I am trying to read various books and attend important events that could possibly benefit my skills. Right now, I am participating in a design sprint about the aging population. It’s a great way of applying my UX research skills I gathered from previous projects and most importantly I got a change to work with various people from different design backgrounds. I expanded my network beyond the university walls.